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Karl Rove Thinks Voters Are Stupid - A Mathematician Proves Him Wrong

Karl Rove published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he claimed that Republicans lost the 2012 Presidential election, in part, because Democrats maintain a significant data advantage over Republicans. While this may be true, Rove’s contention is that with its own “army of computer engineers, mathematicians and social scientists” Republicans will be able to win elections they would have lost otherwise. As a practicing mathematician, I can tell you that Rove has no idea what he is talking about.

Rove’s contention is the following: By hiring an “army” of mathematicians and data analysts as Obama did in 2012, the RNC or the 2016 Republican Presidential nominee can sift through voter files in order to rank and track likely voters. This is what marketers attempt to do when they sell soap. Unfortunately, politicians are not soap and no ad in Field and Stream of Mitt Romney and his lovely wife wrapped in white bath towels hopping out of the shower holding bars of Dove will make voters more likely to vote. The reason is simple. Voters HATE politicians. We hate them. We do not trust them. When people knock on our door or call us on the phone asking for our vote, we lie just to get rid of you. It is not accidental that 5 out of 6 Americans think Congress is doing a lousy job. So what would a mathematician tell Karl Rove if he asked for my advice about how to improve upon his 1.3% success rate in the 2012 elections? I would tell Karl to do some principal component analysis.

What is that? In short, it is a statistical tool to identify the most significant drivers of a physical process, in this case an election result. In other words, all other things being equal what is most important to voters to ensure that enough of them get out the door to vote for a candidate. I will save Karl the time and expense of hiring an “army” of mathematicians and answer the question for him. When voters are dissatisfied, if the opposition presents a stark contrast with the status quo and is believable, they win. That is how Obama won in 2008 and why Romney lost in 2012. When there is more than one election on the ballot, results are often driven by the result at the top of the ticket. It is just that simple. You do not have to be a mathematician to appreciate this fact. Rove does and is using his op-ed to deflect criticism.

A few facts. Obama lost 5% of his 2008 vote in 2012 yet still managed to win. This was, in part, because many voters were uncertain that the philosophical father of Obamacare, someone who spent the latter part of his campaign praising government run health insurance, would provide a significant enough contrast to Obama.

By campaigning as the 41st vote against the Obama agenda, Scott Brown increased turnout in Republican leaning counties by 77% to become the first Republican to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate since Harry Truman was President. Two years later after embracing parts of the Obama agenda, Brown lost handedly to a more authentic liberal.

Karl Rove contends that "personal messaging” will help Republicans sway potential voters. Rove believes that was a source of Obama’s success. How many “independents” did “Republican” Linda McMahon’s door hangers sway when they asked voters to elect her to overturn the President’s health care law while simultaneously asking voters to re-elect the President? Apparently not many as McMahan lost in 2012 by the same 12 point margin that she lost by in 2010. Voters recognized a pander and we're not swayed.

For all his years in politics, it is apparent that Karl Rove has never spent election day in an urban inner city neighborhood. Obama won re-election because he out-hustled Romney in urban neighborhoods where the vote favors Democrats. This was old-fashioned Democrat machine politics pure and simple. Republicans would do well to copy the Democrat model for election day grassroots organizing and focus efforts there. They should have local poll watchers maintain their own voter lists and deploy an “army” of volunteer election lawyers and poll watchers as the Democrats do.

Rove concludes “erasing the GOP's data deficit is no substitute for effective messages and strong candidates.” I agree. While Rove wants to focus his efforts on helping Republicans “deliver those messages better,” I believe that our efforts would be better spent on delivering a more effective believable message that contrasts with the Democrats. In a country where conservatives outnumber liberals in 47 out of 50 states, you would think politicians would pander to conservatives to try and win elections. Clearly, there is a disconnect. You do not need to be a mathematician to appreciate that a believable message is the meat that gets your supporters to the polls. Everything else is gravy.

Thank you for this article, unfortunately, it's become all too rare to see examples of common sense. We're ignored or treated with contempt. Our concerns ignored, but hacks like Rove and Reince Priebus still expect us to come running like Pavlov's dogs when they feel the need.

Rove and his kind should all just go away, Rove and Joe Trippi are now best buds, what does that tell you other than they are in it srictly for the money and face time on TV. Hannity should not invite Rove back.

Great post. Rove is clearly flailing. The old neo-Con coalition is broken and he'll never be able to rebuild it. Good! Maybe Rove could understand it this way. Imagine the voting population as 7 people on an island. Obama focused on the women (Mary Ann and Ginger), the university crowd (Professor), and the under class (Skipper and Gilligan). Romney focused on people like himself (Mr. and Ms. Howell) . 5 votes beats 2. Pretty simple.

On the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, a panel, moderated by Sabrina Schaeffer of the Independent Women’s Forum, met to discuss what’s next for Common Core. Their conclusion: Common Core will be a very important platform stance in the 2016 election. They are completely right.

Karl Rove has a piece at FoxNews titled "Republicans must resist game of chicken with president over ObamaCare." In it, the establishment's favorite political guru dispenses bad advice to grassroots conservatives, based on the assumption that defunding the health care law on a spending bill "won't work." He's wrong about that.

In March, I reported on the first signs of new life from the National Republican Senatorial Committee after the disastrous 2012 election cycle, in which conservatives lost ground in the US Senate despite expectations of actually taking over that chamber of congress. Given the rise of new media and the stagnation of legacy media, the NRSC has taken the initiative to facilitate communications by creating a new blogger outreach position.

Today on The FreedomCast, Allysen Efferson joins me to discuss the GOP’s new targeted demographic, the “mommy blogger.” It’s about time, don’t they know we talk to everybody?
More from Dana Loesch on RedState

Much was made of the New York Times article earlier this month that detailed how Karl Rove has created an offshoot of American Crossroads to fund candidates in Republican primaries that are, in the estimation of well heeled GOP donors, "more electable". At Breitbart.com, Ben Shapiro described it as Rove having declared war on the Tea Party.

November was rough, but it's time to get back to work. Pick your lip up off the floor, scrape the Romney/Ryan sticker off your back windshield (replace it with something like a Gonzalez or Gadsden Flag, or course) and get back to work. America needs you now more than ever. In case you don't believe me, while we dawdle, Democrats are unleashing statist fury on states like Texas. Last week, Politico reported:

It's the messaging, stupid.Much has been made since the past election cycle regarding the GOP's inability to reach out to voters. While doing so, many are focusing on the voter themselves, or as Rush Limbaugh refers to them - the low-information voter.